The Two-Way

11:29 am

Sat November 10, 2012

Four Days Later, Florida Declares For Obama

A worker prepares boxes of absentee ballots to be scanned at the Miami-Dade County Elections Department on Tuesday.

Wilfredo LeeAP

Four days after the polls closed, Florida has announced that President Obama won the state's 29 electoral votes. As the AP writes:

"That gives the president a total of 332 electoral votes to Mitt Romney's 206. Florida officials said Obama had 50 percent of the vote to Romney's 49.1 percent, a margin of about 74,000 votes."

The Florida Secretary of State's Office confirmed Obama's victory Saturday. Though razor-thin, the difference is still larger than the half-percent margin that would have automatically triggered a recount.

Though Obama's win was secured even without the state's electoral votes, Florida's results put all eight swing states — including Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Virginia, Colorado and New Hampshire — in the president's column.

Despite the announcement, not quite all of Florida's ballots have been counted. As The Washington Post reports:

"There is a Nov. 16 deadline for overseas and military ballots, but under Florida law, recounts are based on Saturday's results. Only a handful of overseas and military ballots are believed to remain outstanding.

"It's normal for election supervisors in Florida and other states to spend days after any election counting absentee, provisional, military and overseas ballots. Usually, though, the election has already been called on election night or soon after because the winners margin is beyond reach."